Oh...if Art had access to everything Paul does at Ping, he'd could zing them well.....no pun intended.
Dear Brian,
Thanks so much for your comments, and yes I would LOVE to have access to Dr. Paul Wood’s data, and would gladly sign a 'Non Disclosure Agreement', and visit them with you if possible.
As I am sure you know, I am passionately connected to finding 'golf truth' and have yet to have a circumstance where I left a golf science 'applications' discussion, or test verification event without feeling that something was better, because of the quality of the participants, and the focus of finding just the truth.
With the limited data I have on this extensive ROC exchange coming only from this site, for my own insight and sanity, I have taken a 'TOP DOWN' analytical look at the IMPACT TO THE RESULTS OF THE SHOT of varying degrees of ROC magnitude.
The most recent pictures posted clearly proved to me that 'that swing' had ROC's as described below the pictures, with the only comment that 2400 etc were in "degrees per second", not just degrees.
What is fascinating to me was the 'impact of the impact' on club face angle.
I digress for a moment. In the missiles and space world, a body in motion in, or going to space is often technically described by its “State Vector” ( the instantaneous direction and magnitude of the center of gravity/mass of the element) , AND the “Attitude Control” or 3D picture/position of the element based on some agreed upon reference axes. It has been wonderful for me to have the association of this and the golf club moving in space because it simplifies and images the reality of the club heads movements during the explosive transition and downswing. I say transition, because in the world of shafts and club heads, there is a great deal of ‘Attitude Control’ movement in that ¼ of a second, caused and based on the input from the body to the shaft, and the shaft to the club head..
Some of the movement is deterministic and predictable, and even’ reliably model-able’, but a great deal falls into the uncertain area, and therefore AT THIS TIME must be treated statistically, on top of the deterministic ‘stuff’
Where the HE__ am I going, well simply to the heart of the IMPACT OF THE IMPACT.
In a previous post, with limited data I noted that an elite golfer has about a one degree one sigma uncertainty in club head ‘attitude control’ at impact. That certainly contains his or her ROC characteristics in the form of swing to swing variations. That one degree or 1/57 of a radian, would in still air, produce a 300/57 yard uncertainty at the target, or, 5-6 yards at a one sigma level (68 % of the time), and simply, a 10-12 uncertainty for two sigma 95% of the time. So I ask myself, what is the expected variation in ROC, is it deterministic and controllable, and is it possible to change and control it ??
So, at this time Brian, I feel like you and I am sure many others , ‘enough already’ on the details of ROC, there is much more improvement payoff in working on the uncertainty and possible control of the DELIVERY SYSTEM that provides the point of imitation of the ROC activity.
However, before I sign off, since tom me, a picture you provided is worth a million words now, as I see the dramatic effect in ‘attitude control’, or position of the club face shortly after impact. So I am now PASSIONATELY interested in the REAL LAUNCH CODITIONS OF THE BALL OFF OF THE CLUB FACE, and therefore the REAL launch vector and spin axis.
One last thought from a total systems standpoint; if the real dispersion at the target for an elite golfer is 10-15 yards in ideal conditions including ROC, this NEW ‘IMPACT UNCERTAINTY’ launch direction and spin rate should be statistically added to the previous dispersion, and if found to be of the same approximate value, the total variation, 95% of the time will be 15-20 yards at 300 yards and IMO, still OK.
